RECOVER Injury Research Centre

27/07/2026

National Pain Week is an important reminder that pain is more than a symptom. For many people, it's a long-term condition that affects every aspect of daily life. At RECOVER Injury Research Centre, our research focuses on improving recovery outcomes for people injured on our roads.
This National Pain Week, we're proud to support the important advocacy of Chronic Pain Australia and help raise awareness of the lived experience of chronic pain.

24/07/2026

Finding the right support after a traumatic brain injury shouldn't be another barrier to recovery. People living with TBI often face challenges navigating health, community and research services, particularly in regional and remote areas. Through consultation with people with lived experience and caregivers, one message came through clearly: there is a need for a simpler way to connect with support and with each other.

That's the driving force behind Pathways to Connection, a new RECOVER Injury Research Centre project led by Dr Megan Ross. Supported by the Queensland Brain Injury Collaborative (QBIC) Seed Funding Grant Scheme, the project will co-design a digital tool to help Queenslanders with TBI find services, social connection opportunities and research pathways.

Importantly, the project builds on early consumer and community consultation made possible through the UQ Health Consumer and Community Involvement (CCI) KICKSTART Grant Scheme, ensuring lived experience has shaped the project from the very beginning.

Special thanks to Jason Driscoll from Stones Throw Away, a member of RECOVER's Consumer Advisory Group, whose insights helped shape the project. As Jason shared, "Having a TBI can feel lonely. Even just connecting online helps", highlighting the importance of creating easier pathways to support and connection.

Read more: https://recover.centre.uq.edu.au/article/2026/07/pathways-connection-consumer-voices-drive-new-digital-solution-brain-injury-recovery

21/07/2026

There is increasing recognition of the role of neuroimmune factors in persistent pain, but the mechanisms behind this are still being teased out. Dr Scott Farrell recently spoke to the Australian Physiotherapy Association's InMotion magazine about the combined role of the nervous and immune systems in persistent pain, and new avenues for investigation.

https://australian.physio/inmotion/neuroimmune-contributions-

UQ Health

PERSISTENT PAIN The combined role of the nervous system and the immune system as a contributor to persistent pain is slowly being worked out by researchers. Physiotherapy researcher Dr Scott Farrell talks about new avenues for investigation. There is increasing recognition of the role of neuroimmune...

20/07/2026

🩰🧠 Do you have an acquired brain injury, live in a regional or rural area in Queensland and want to join an online exercise program? Queensland Ballet is teaming up with researchers from The University of Queensland to pilot and deliver the successful Ballet for Brain Injury program as a live online program.

Read all about the program here 👇

https://niis.qld.gov.au/2026/07/bringing-the-benefits-of-ballet-to-more-queenslanders-exploring-a-new-online-program-for-ballet-for-brain-injury/

Contact [email protected] to find out more or get involved.

UQ Health, Brain Injury Australia, The Brain Injury Community

A unique partnership is set to expand access to a much-loved rehabilitation program, with a new TeleBrain trial exploring how Ballet for Brain Injury can be delivered online to people across regional and rural Queensland.

12/07/2026

10/07/2026

Prof. Michele Sterling spoke with ABC Drive's Adam Stephen about whiplash, the role of stress in chronic pain and recovery, and our trial of StressModex, a new physio-delivered treatment that incorporates stress-reduction techniques to prevent the development of chronic pain after a whiplash injury.

📻 Interview starts at 2:34:15
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/north-qld-drive/drive/106882854?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared

➡️ If you or someone you know has recently sustained a whiplash injury after a motor vehicle crash, please visit https://recover.centre.uq.edu.au/whiplash-research to learn more about opportunities to participate in our clinical trials and whiplash research.

08/07/2026

Dr Christopher Papic spoke with Pain Medicine News about his systematic review investigating the prevalence and drivers of chronic pain following brain injury. While previous reviews have focused on concussion, this is the first to look at chronic pain and brain injury.

A-systematic-review-finds-chronic-pain-prevalence-after-traumatic-brain-injury-clinically-relevant-with-approximately-50-of-subjects-experiencing-body-pain-and-30-suffering-headache-pain

03/07/2026

A warm welcome to our Winter Research Program students: 4th-year OT student Jade Salisbury, Physio Masters student Stephanie Jansen, and 2nd-year physio student Sam Hains. Over the next 4 weeks, they'll be working with our team and 'test-driving' the world of allied health research.

02/07/2026

What helps some people recover from injury while others develop persistent pain? Professor Michele Sterling chatted to Melissa Mitchell from the Australian Physiotherapy Association's Inmotion magazine about the question that started her journey from clinician to internationally recognised researcher.

Michele leads RECOVER's Improving Health Outcomes After Musculoskeletal Injury Program and is the director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury. She was recently recognised as Australia's leading pain researcher and named in The Australian's Top 250 Researchers of 2026. We are proud to have Michele's leadership driving research that translates into better care and better recovery for people living with pain.

Read the article: https://australian.physio/inmotion/burning-questions-drive-pain-researcher

For more than two decades, Professor Michele Sterling has been at the forefront of pain research, reshaping how physiotherapists understand musculoskeletal injury, chronic pain and recovery after whiplash injury. Michele was recently named in The Australian’s top 250 researchers of 2026 and is the...